NEW YORK (AP) — Naomi Campbell’s swagger is what powers her runway strut, and it’s unlikely another few uncomfortable days of attention over her testimony in the Charles Taylor war-crimes trial will change that.
She has shaken off arrests, bad press, phone-throwing and airport tantrums — and continues to work, most recently as the face of socialite designer Dennis Basso. In fact, at age 40, she’s still very much in demand.
That’s because no one rocks a runway like Campbell. When she steps on a catwalk, the audience is mesmerized, not only by her striking beauty but also a confidence without chink. People can’t take their eyes off the woman, who has posed on the cover of Vogue seven times, represented Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton, and donned Victoria’s Secret wings.
But can the industry that props up her supermodel status turn a blind eye to the “blood diamond” allegation made at the former Liberian president’s Hague trial, where he’s accused of trading in tainted gems used to finance wars in exchange for supporting rebels in Sierra Leone in a bloody 11-year civil war that ended in 2002.
Both Campbell’s former agent, Carole White, who is separately suing Campbell for breach of contract, and actress and activist Mia Farrow claimed in court that Taylor gave at least one diamond to the model.
Reluctantly, Campbell appeared last week as a witness under subpoena. She said she did receive a package of “very small, dirty-looking stones” after a dinner at Nelson Mandela’s presidential mansion in 1997, but that she didn’t know the nature or value of the stones, nor who was sending her the gift.
Ultimately, the diamonds were donated to Mandela’s children’s charity.
Campbell issued a statement Tuesday: “I’ve no motive here. Nothing to gain. I am a black woman who has and will always support good causes especially relating to Africa. I’ve never taken any of the jobs offered to me, over my 25 years as a model, from companies that were for apartheid in South Africa.”
Campbell also stressed that the incident happened 13 years ago and that her version of events varied only slightly from Farrow.
“She (Campbell) was not on trial in the Hague and was as helpful towards the court as she could be,” added the statement released by her public relations agency.
Whether the allegations prove true or not, the mere suggestion that Campbell handled a conflict diamond likely makes her poison to the fine jewelry industry, said Sally Morrison, the director of the Diamond Information Center, an umbrella trade organisation.
“I think this time it’s different because whatever controversy Naomi Campbell has had — allegedly throwing a cell phone at an assistant’s head or whatever — have been ‘misdemeanors.’ … The allegations around Charles Taylor involve such abuse of human rights, cruelty, violence and illicit war, it’s just another level, another magnitude,” Morrison said.
“It might not be her fault, she might not have done anything wrong — it might only be by association — but working with her would be a step backward for the industry that has worked so hard to address the issue of conflict diamonds.”
London-based celebrity publicist Max Clifford, who does not work with the model, said Campbell was likely to come out of the Taylor trial looking bad, but that it wouldn’t hurt her career overall.
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